The Girl, The King
by Madam Callisto
Summary: Shirou's father tells him the story of the reign of a young girl who was king.


"Ouch, oww, that hurts!" Shirou cried, pulling his knee away Kiritsugu's hands.

"I know Shirou, but you need to hold still. If I don't clean the wound it'll get infected." He said, rewetting the cotton ball in his hands with alcohol.

"I don't care! It hurts!"

Kiritsugu sighed and scratched his head, unsure of what exactly you were supposed to say in this kind of situation. Shirou's knee was scrapped up pretty badly and couldn't just be left like that. The only person he'd ever thought of as a mother would have just sat on him to stop him from squirming and gotten it over with quickly. He didn't really like the idea of that very much. Shirou was still a bit too young for Kiritsugu to want him to start associating him with pain. Maybe in a few years he'd become a little less gentle.

Kiritsugu said the only thing that came to mind, "How about I tell you a story?" Shriou made a confused whimpering sound as he brushed his tears onto his sleeve. "It should help you keep your mind off of this."

Shirou nodded slowly, "Alright let's see…" Kirtusugu furrowed his brow as he thought. A personal story was completely out of the question as his life hadn't been remotely child-friendly before he'd meet Shirou. A tale about him hunting down a mage in Portugal and shooting him in a back alley wouldn't work for this situation at all. Natalia had never told him fairytales when they were together, so if he tried to recant a fairytale from memory, the story would probably be horribly mutilated.

Shirou looked up at him, eyes wide and eager. It was too late to go back now.

Then he remembered something. A story that just might work.

"A long time ago, there was a young girl..destined to be King."

Shirou blinked, "A girl?"

"Yeah, a girl. She was the only child of the king so she was the heir to all of the kings kingdom."

"But…a girl can't be king. She'd have to be a queen right?"

Kiritsugu laughed softly, "This girl could. You see, when her father, the king, realized that she would never be accepted as the king because she was a girl, she was entrusted to the care of one of the kings most loyal knights and was raised as his son."

Shirou nodded again, his eyes glowing as he listened to his father talk.

"When the girl was fifteen, her father died and left the throne empty. No one was there to take over for him, so the land fell into turmoil as the countrymen feared that they might soon be invaded while they were weak. So the kings wizard came one day to the young girl and told her that if she could pull a magical sword from the stone it was stuck in, her country would recognize her as the rightful king."

"What kind of sword was it?" Shirou asked.

"A magical one. A sword that could only be wielded by the one true king."

"Why?"

"Well…" Kiritugu sighed, "It was probably under some kind of enchantment placed on it by the girls' father that stopped anyone who did not share his blood from obtaining it—or maybe the blade was could feel the strength of the hearts of those who tried to remove it from the stone, I don't really know."

"Okay, that makes sense. What do you mean a wizard? Was he a sorcerer or just a magician?"

"Hm, probably a low-level magic user who focused mostly on disguise based magic, pretty unimpressive. Anyway, the kings wizard came to her and told her all of this and the girl decided to pull out the sword. But before that, the wizard told her that if she succeeded and pulling out the sword, she'd be doomed to a life of servitude to her country. She would no longer live as woman, or even as a human being, she would be only the king.

"The girl didn't even hesitate. She knew it was her destiny and she pulled the sword from the sword, proving herself to be the rightful king. The girl began her reign as king, guiding her homeland though a period of unity and prosperity with the assistance of the wizard—or rather the mage, and her knights that she took as her advisors.

"No one ever questioned her gender as it was hidden from everyone with simple magic, and she never aged into womanhood as she later received a powerful sheath from the Lady of Lake that gave her immortality."

"A magical sheath?"

A strange smile came over Kiritsugu, "Yes, a magic sheath. With its power and the sword she received with it, she ruled for nearly ten years unopposed.

"But soon her subjects began to question their king. They thought she was cold and didn't care for those beneath her. They never knew that the young girl cared more for her country that she did anything else, and that she thought only of her subjects.

"Unrest began to spread though the land, and when the king tried to suppress it she found herself in a battle against her own treacherous knights."

"That's awful."

"It was. The kings sheath had been stolen prior to this battle, but she fought anyway, unafraid of the death she knew she would face. She fought against those who she'd thought most loyal to her, not letting herself show any mercy, still fighting for the country that she served with all her might."

"Did she die?"

Kiritsugu nodded, "Yes, she was wounded to heavily in battle. Her most loyal solider took the king into the woods away from her battle, and the king ordered him to throw her sword deep into the lake she'd gotten it from. The knight obeyed after the third time she ordered him to do it, and the king died."

"None of her people knew she cared?" Shirou's said. His eyes glistened lightly.

"Only her closest knight. But even if none of them knew, history still remembers her as the brave king that fought for her country that she really was."

Shirou sniffed, "That's sad," He said. Kiritsugu flinched, starting to regret telling him that story, when-"she sounded really cool."

Kiritsugu smiled gently, "She was more than that. She was a hero, one of the greatest kings the world has ever known, and a truly wonderful person."

"Do you think she ever regretted it?" Shirou asked, "Becoming king?".

"I don't know…I guess I can't really ask her now," Kiritsugu said quietly, "I wish I had."

"You'd have needed a time machine, dad."

"Hm? Ah, yeah, you're right," Kiritsugu said, "There we go, all done." He finished tying off the bandaged wrapped around Shriou's knee.

"When did you do that?!" Shirou said, staring at his knee in awe. Kiritsugu ruffled the boys' hair.

"Better?"

Shriou beamed happily, "Can you tell me more about her?"

Kiritsugu laughed, "I can try."

* * *

"Saber? Saber, it's time for breakfast, wake up."

Saber got up slowly, rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes. Shirou was leaning over her slightly and had been very gently shaking her shoulders. When she'd opened her eyes he'd jumped backwards as if he'd been stung.

"Oh, Shirou."

"Ah—good morning, Saber!" He said loudly. Saber nodded to him in acknowledgment, "Is something wrong?"

"No, I am fine."

Shirou raised an eyebrow, still examining her with a look of concern, "Are you sure you're not sick? You look uncomfortable."

"I just had strange dream," Saber said, "I'm sorry to worry you," Shirou took a few more minutes to convince but eventually be left to finish making breakfast with Sakura and Saber was left alone.

Saber looked out the window, feeling a pit form in her chest as she remembered her dream. Shirou must not remember that day or he probably would have mentioned it at some point.

"I really didn't understand you at all, Master."

**End**


End file.
